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View SlideshowRequest to buy this photoMahmoud Shanti | associated pressSoldiers carry the body of Sgt. Tomer Hazan, who was killed by a Palestinian man hoping to trade the body for his jailed brother.

JERUSALEM — A Palestinian lured an Israeli soldier to a village in the West Bank and killed him
with the intention of trading the body for his brother jailed for terror attacks, Israel’s
intelligence agency said yesterday.

The killing further sours the atmosphere for the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, which resumed
in July for the first time in nearly five years. The deaths of several Palestinians in Israeli
raids in the West Bank intended to detain militants involved in attacks has also caused tensions,
with the Palestinian side canceling one session last month in response. Israel has made its
security concerns a top priority in talks.

The 20-year-old soldier was reported missing late on Friday, and Israeli forces began looking
for him, the Shin Bet intelligence agency said. The search led the troops to Nidal Amar, a
42-year-old Palestinian from Beit Amin village near the city of Qalqiliya in the northern West
Bank.

Amar was arrested and confessed to killing the soldier, whom he knew because they worked at the
same restaurant in the coastal city of Bat Yam in central Israel, the agency said. The military
identified the slain soldier as

Sgt. Tomer Hazan from Bat Yam.

According to Shin Bet, the Palestinian recounted how he had picked up Hazan in a taxi on Friday
after persuading him to accept a ride. He took the Israeli to an open field, killed him and hid his
body in a well, the agency said.

A senior military official said initial investigations suggested that Palestinian individuals
planned the attack on their own, not on the orders of any militant groups. The official did not
elaborate on who else may have been involved in the plot besides Amar. The jailed brother had been
involved in shootings and bombings, the official said.

Hazan had a noncombat position in the air force and had an arrangement allowing him to hold a
job outside the military, the official said. He was killed with a “cold weapon” — meaning, not a
firearm — but the official would not disclose what weapon was used.

Israel is holding about 5,000 Palestinian prisoners on charges ranging from rock throwing to
deadly attacks. They are seen as heroes within Palestinian society, regardless of the crimes they
were convicted of committing.

The latest deaths only increase the mistrust between the two sides as they hold negotiations
after a hiatus of nearly five years. Talks collapsed in 2008, and U.S. Secretary of State John
Kerry spent months this year persuading the sides to get talks back on track again.

The Palestinians had initially refused and demanded an end to Israeli settlement building in
areas they demand for a future state as a precondition for resuming talks. Israel insisted that
settlements along with all other core issues like security arrangements should be resolved in
talks.

Kerry managed to get the Palestinians to drop their demand in exchange for Israel’s release of
long-time Palestinian prisoners involved in killing Israeli civilians and soldiers.